Anderson remembered for life-long commitment to wheat
Carol Stender
Date Modified: 12/01/2009 11:34 AM
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Agri News staff writer
BARNESVILLE, Minn. -- Tom Anderson has been honored not once but twice with wheat varieties released by the University of Minnesota Agriculture Experiment Station.
Researchers named the variety Tom after Anderson, who died in 2007 after a battle with cancer. The variety was released last year. Earlier this year, another wheat variety called Sabin was released. It's named after the west central Minnesota community where it was tested in Anderson's nearby fields.
The double honor is fitting for the farmer who was a strong supporter of wheat research and research funding.
"Tom always welcomed research," his widow Kirsten said. "He always wanted to find out why something was happening."
If a crop grew well in one area but not another, he wanted to know why, Kirsten said. When he experienced root rot in sugar beets, he worked with the University of Minnesota-Crookston and North Dakota State University in Fargo to find out what was happening to the crop.
He not only supported research, Tom fought for it, she said.
Fusarium head blight was the scourge of small grains in the mid-1990s, but farmers had little ammunition to fight back. Budgets had been cut for research projects. Tom spearheaded an effort to re-establish funding and small grains research. He founded, with other like-minded producers, the U.S. Wheat Barley Scab Initiative in 1998 and co-chaired the organization for several years.
Through his efforts, scab research programs including scab resistant varietal research efforts were renewed.
In 2005, researchers planted the Sabin variety in field plots on Anderson's land.
"That was the last year we had some serious Fusarium Head Blight issues," said University of Minnesota wheat breeder Jim Anderson. "I could recognize it in the field without harvesting it that that grain had good resistance to scab."
He's not related to Tom, but calls the Sabin farmer one of the biggest cheerleaders of the region's small grains research.
"Tom was always asking what was new," Jim Anderson said. "If we needed more resources, he wanted to know. He would ask how the program was going and what new varieties were coming out."
He loved farming and his family, Kirsten said. He was the third generation on the family's land near Sabin. The couple's son, Paul, now operates the farm.
His father, Alvin, raised crops and livestock. He helped his father farm and purchased his own additional acres.
Anderson and Kirsten married in 1977 and purchased a home in Barnesville where Kirsten taught school. He didn't want to move his parents off their farm, she said. During his commute to the farm, Anderson assessed his fields and make plans for his work schedule.
He raised sugar beets, wheat and sunflowers and, when their two children, Paul and Melissa, became active in school, he rented out the sugar beet shares. He wanted to be available to take part in their school activities.
Anderson was active in the Barnesville community. He promoted the city's economic development program and was active in church and farm organizations, she said.
He was a member of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, the U.S. Wheat Barley Scab Initiative and worked for small grains research programs.
Anderson was diagnosed with cancer and retired in early 2007. He died that July and, in December 2007, researchers honored him and his family with the varietal selection Tom.
When Paul Anderson asked his mother to help harvest the crop, she asked if he'd planted any Tom. He did.
"It was just phenomenal," she said of the lush wheat field. "I had to clip some and frame it."
And now she can add Sabin to the picture.
Sabin is a good yielding variety with equally good test weight and protein. It has the Samai 3 source for scab resistance and is rated 4 on a scale of 1 to 9. It's similar to Faller, Freyr and Tom with resistance to stem rust and moderate resistance to leaf rust. It's of average height and has medium straw strength.